


Hazy Shade of Winter

by intellectual_desperado



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2020-06-25 02:00:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19736080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intellectual_desperado/pseuds/intellectual_desperado
Summary: It’s been six months since The Battle of Starcourt Mall and another three months since the Byers family packed up their family home and took off to Maine with El in tow.The party has now entered high school, which Nancy, Steve and Robin attempt to help them navigate. Jonathan plays protective big brother to Will and his new surrogate sister El. Everything is how Joyce wanted it - perfectly normal.Until Murray Baumann shows up with a code that will upend their lives again.





	1. Chapter 1

**Kamchatka, Russia**

A brawny soldier walks down the wet, dark hallway of the prison. In his hands, he held a flimsy plastic tray with gray sludge they gave to the prisoners. He huffs as he reaches his destination, throwing the metal door open with a slam.

The prisoner laid on the ground. He was surprisingly bulky for the amount of time he had been held in the cell, but loss significant weight since he’d been hauled in by the soldier’s comrades. His hair was long and matted with a long beard hiding his face. Tally marks lined the wall, totaling up the days he’d been in the cell - 181.

The soldier dropped the tray on the ground and slid it over to the prisoner, hitting him in the face. The prisoner woke with a start.

“съесть,” the soldier commanded. The prisoner got to his knees shakily and used his hands to scoop the sludge from the tray to his mouth with haste as his captor watched with disgust.

“американская мразь.”

The prisoner ignored him as he wiped the sludge from his beard.

“Water...please,” the prisoner pleaded.

His voice was hoarse with dehydration. The soldier had spent enough time with The American to understand the request and went to the hallway to fetch a cup. Stopping at a fountain at the end of the hall to fill up the cup.

As he returned to the room the prisoner and tray were gone. The soldier whipped around only to be smacked in the face with the tray. He felt his nose crack and the blood pouring down his face instantly. He tried reaching for his gun but the prisoner anticipated his move and grabbed his wrist while using his other hand to wrap around the soldier's neck. The two men struggled against each other momentarily until the prisoner pulled the soldier close before slamming his head into the wall, knocking the Russian out cold.

The prisoner sighed and looked down at the soldier. He looked around with panic before taking the soldiers gun and baton as he sprinted out of the cell for the first time in months. Opening the door into an adjacent hallway.

Shortly after the prisoner takes off - two more Russian soldiers walked into holding cell hallway looking for their missing comrade.

“товарищ?” one of the soldiers called down the hall. They move closer to the cell and draw their guns as they notice the cell door is open. As they reach the cell they find their fellow soldier unconscious and bleeding on the floor.

“бить тревогу,” the soldier yelled at his comrade. “найти американца!”

The prisoner sprinted down the hallway as the alarms blared and red light strobes through his vision. Each time he hears the heavy footsteps of soldiers looking for him he dodges behind a place to hide. He knows he searching blindly, but he needs to take a shot.

Suddenly, he hears an alarmed man shouting orders in Russian behind a closed door. It takes the prisoner a moment to realize that the man behind the door sounds like the voice coming over the intercom system. The prisoner kicks the door open and immediately shoots the soldier yelling into the microphone. He hastily blocks the door with a desk to keep more soldiers out.

He scans the room and homes in what he needs - a radio. The prisoner fumbles around to change the frequency and starts clicking the comms button.

_di-di-di-dit_

_dah-dah-dah_

_di-dah-dah-dit_

He continues clicking the code over and over. Praying that anyone will hear it.

He didn’t hear the soldier sneak up behind him before he was knocked out with the butt of a rifle.

**BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA**

Murray Baumann was holed in his new hideaway. He decided to stay closer to the small town of Hawkins in order to keep an eye on any new oddities that arise. He was certain that he was the only adult within a 100-mile radius that had known what had happened in the supposed sleepy Midwest town that didn’t leave a group of teenagers to their own devices. They were all shitheads as far as Murray was concerned, but he figured if anything new did pop up he was at least in the same state.

A lot of TV magazines had taken a recent interest in Hawkins. Some focused on the corrupt Mayor Klein. The “chemical spill” cover-up of Hawkins Lab that supposedly took the lives of Barbara Holland and Bob Newby. Or the most idiotic theory of all and a personal favorite of the TV sleazeballs - Satanic Panic. Murray rolled his eyes as a supposed Hawkins local rattled on about the resurrection of Will Byers and how the children of the town called him Zombie Boy. Murray took a swing of Stoli and grit his teeth.

Suddenly a high pitched noise cut through from a radio setup on Murray’s desk. Murray popped up and waited for a snide message from the Henderson kid - he and his buddies typically crank called when they were especially bored.

Instead, Murray heard a series a beeps come through the system.

_di-di-di-dit_

_dah-dah-dah_

_di-dah-dah-dit_

The code came through multiple times before Murray grabbed a pen and paper to copy it. As soon as he got down all the marks he searched around his messy set up for a cheat sheet he knew he had.

“WHERE IS IT GODDAMNIT?!” He roared at himself. He finally spotted what he needed under a few empty take out boxes. He lined the two papers next to each other to cross reference the code.

“Dot, dot, dot, dot,” he muttered and circled the accompanying letter.

“Line, line, line.” Circle

“Dot, line, line, dot.” Circle.

Murray looked down at the circled letter with disbelief and swore under his breath.

“Holy shit.”

_Hop._


	2. Chapter 2: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

**Hawkins, Indiana**

The group of seven marched their way up the snow-covered hill. The New Year had just rolled through and they had a week left of winter break. It had been six months since the Battle of Starcourt Mall and since then nearly everything in their lives had changed. The party had entered high school and had to deal with bigger, meaner bullies. Usually, the boys could outwit them in some ways, but their smartass comments usually meant dealing with getting their asses beat. Steve tried giving some fighting tips until Dustin curtly reminded him that Steve had only won a single fight in his life. Steve typically retorted with an agitated, “ _Yeah_...against a _RUSSIAN SOLDIER,_ dipshit.” 

Nancy and Robin typically stepped in on the boys' behalf with a cutting remark to the bully in question, which ended whatever assault came their way on a particular day. Although Max was always with the boys, the bullies never bothered her. No one ever figured out because they had pity for the girl who just lost her brother in the “fire” at the mall or were afraid that somehow Billy Hargrove would return from the dead to kick their asses for messing with his younger sister. It was far fetched Zombie Boy was one of her best friends. 

It wasn’t just the lives of the party that had changed - the fabric of Hawkins had changed after the events of the Fourth of July. As far as the rest of the town was concerned, the destruction of the mall was at the fault of a corrupt mayor and faulty construction. Even though the story was convincing enough, too many odd events had occurred in the small town in a short amount of time. News crews and conspiracy theorists continued to flood the town trying to uncover the deep, dark secrets of Hawkins. 

But has Murray had told Nancy, if people found out the truth - the real truth - they would never believe it. They might buy it to the more simplistic versions or rumors of events, but alternate dimensions and monsters? A secret invasion of Russian soldiers? Children with telekinetic powers being held in labs? 

It would be too much for people to comprehend. 

Yet this group of kids had witnessed it and survived it all. Not without losing people though - Barb, Bob, Hopper and even Billy. The Byers and El had survived it too, but Joyce had taken them far away from this town of horrors before anything new could arise. 

A bone-chilling wind cut across the hill and Steve let out a groan. 

“I really don’t understand why we couldn’t do this over a goddamn phone, Henderson.”

“Because, _Steve,_ ” Dustin started, “All of our parents gave us the ultimatum of paying for the two-hour long distance calls. Unless the video store started paying you and Robin an insane amount of cash, cerebro is our only option.” 

Steve pursed his lips in annoyed and turned to Robin for back up. Robin just shrugged her shoulders in response, indicating that she agreed with Dustin’s point. 

“I still don’t understand why they couldn’t come home like we agreed upon when they left,” Mike complained sullenly.

“That’s not fair, Mike,” Nancy retorted. “You know Mrs. Byers didn’t want to come ho- back to Hawkins in the fall because its so close to the anniversaries. Plus now that she’s taking care of El, it was too expensive to come back for the holidays.” 

Mike huffed. 

“Maybe they’ll come back in the spring or summer,” Lucas offered. 

“Yeah - you think El will want to come back so close to the anniversary of Hop?” Mike cut sharply.

“Billy’s anniversary too,” Max said weakly. Mike gave her an apologetic look. No one else had particularly missed Billy, but he was still Max’s brother. They didn’t have a loving relationship, in fact, their relationship could be downright abusive. Yet Billy was the one who had taught Max how to skateboard, a fact that the party had learned during his funeral, and whenever their parents fought Billy begrudgingly always offered to take Max to the arcade to escape the chaos. The small goods in Billy weren’t enough to erase all the bad for Max, but they were enough to leave her sad and confused. 

Dustin, Lucas and Steve adjusted some of the parts on cerebro until the radio caught a frequency. 

“Alright showtime,” Dustin said with a toothless grin. “North Pole, this is Home Base, do you copy?”

**Windham, Maine**

El laid in her bed listening to music on the Walkman that Joyce had purchased for her on Christmas. Jonathan had provided her with the accompanying gift of mix tapes he made after he learned that Mike had her listening to Corey Hart and REO Speedwagon. She smirked when she remembered Jonathan and Will’s physical shudders when she relayed the information. 

She recognized The Clash song as Will’s favorite that he sang to himself while he was trapped in the Upside Down. The tape was filled with some other personal favorites of the Byers brothers such as Joy Division, David Bowie, The Ramones and more. A lot of it was melancholy, which El didn’t mind so much as it matched her mood these days. She didn’t hate Maine, but she missed Hawkins and her friends. Although they caught up on cerebro as much as they could it was never the same. 

Suddenly, Will came bursting through and grabbed El’s good leg to literally shake her out of her thoughts. 

“El,” he started sharply as El threw off her headphones, “c’mon it’s almost time!” 

Will turned and ran out of the room with Eleven hot on his heels. They almost knocked down Joyce as she tried exiting her room. 

“No running in the house!” She admonished as they passed by. 

“Sorry, Mom!” 

“Sorry, Joyce!” 

They barreled down the steps, where Jonathan was already fiddling with the radio frequency. 

“What did you forget this was happening?” The eldest brother asked his pseudo-sister. 

“Lost track of time listening to my mixtapes,” she explained. Jonathan shot her a sheepish, but proud smile. 

“Acceptable excuse,” he replied. 

This was a rare occasion of a full party radio call. Nancy had come to visit for the holiday though and the part supplied her with letters, photos, and memorabilia. When the party learned that the Byers wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas they arranged for everyone to jump on the radio to recap what they had gotten for Christmas and try to pretend like everything is the same. 

“North Pole, do you copy? This is Home Base over,” Dustin’s voice carried over through the radio. 

“Hey Dustin, we’re here,” Jonathan answered. 

“Call sign, please.” 

Jonathan huffed in annoyance as El and Will shared an amused smirk. 

“Home Base, this is North Pole we copy.” 

Everyone eagerly jumped on to share life updates and the recent gifts the had gotten for Christmas. Lucas shared how his dad - mistaking his love for pop culture of memorabilia as a love of all toys - got him a remote control car. The Wheeler family had gotten a new camcorder. Dustin, Steve and Robin had pitched some money together to buy Erica some My Little Pony figures, because as far as Erica was concerned the three of them still owed her an enormous debt as they couldn’t fulfill on the free ice cream for life policy they previously agreed on. 

As for the Byers, El talked about the walkman and mixtapes that Joyce and Jonathan had given her. While Will mentioned his new sketchbook and drawing set. 

Sometimes the group would get too over excited and speak over each other, which came out as a static garbled mess. Joyce watched the three teenagers in her living room with joy, but she couldn’t help but notice that this was the happiest she had seen them in the three months that they had been in Maine. 

Each of them put on their brave faces to make Joyce happy, but she could see right through their act. Sometimes she felt guilty because she thought she might be selfish because she couldn’t stay in the town where she had lost too much. Then she would remember that she didn’t just do it for herself - she did it to protect Mike and El, who arguably suffered the most of anyone. They’re just kids, Joyce would justify to herself. They deserved normalcy. They shouldn’t be fighting monsters, dealing with government spies or getting stuck in another dimension. 

She did this to give them a shot had a normal life and above all keep them safe. Joyce overheard the conversation wind down while Jonathan huddle by the radio by himself presumably having a private conversation with Nancy, shortly after Jonathan called for El to come back over to talk with Mike. 

Even though Joyce had only known El for a short amount of time compared to Will’s other friends, she wondered how the young girl seemed so much older now. Her hair now fell past her shoulders - a far cry from the shaved head El had when Joyce first met her. Despite the fluorescent neon shirts that hung in El’s closet she had reverted back to wearing flannels and jeans, the look Joyce had eventually learned was inspired by her early days with Hopper. That’s when it dawned on Joyce that it wasn’t that Joyce looked older, she looked sadder, 

After about a half hour of talking, Mike and El said their goodbyes and El hung up the radio. El glanced at Joyce shooting her a quick, sad smile before climbing upstairs to her room. After a few moments, Joyce followed her and paused briefly before knocking on the bedroom. 

“Come in,” El called softly. 

“Hey sweetie,” Joyce started and she walked into the room. “How ya holding up?” 

“Ok, I guess,” El replied looking upset. Joyce sat at the foot of the and gave El’s bad ankle a gentle rub. 

“You know...a lot of people usually get sad this time of year,” Joyce started. 

“Really?”

“Really. The holidays and togetherness usually remind them of the people who aren’t with them anymore and it makes things a little bit tougher,” Joyce explained. 

“I miss him,” El said her voice quavering. She brought her palms to her eyes to quickly wipe away the tears in her eyes. 

“Me too, sweetie,” Joyce replied. Her heart broke for the young girl. Hopper was the closest thing she ever had to a real family, a real father. 

“Do you miss Bob too?” El asked. Although she had never met Bob, Will’s drawing of him still hung on their new refrigerator and El had heard the stories of how he was instrumental in helping Hopper, Joyce, Mike and WIll escape the demodogs. 

Tears now stung Joyce’s eyes and she nodded quickly, “Bob too.” 

“I miss everyone else too ...I like it here too its just,” El struggled to find the words. 

“Not the same,” Joyce offered. El nodded in return. “I know sweetie, but if I know one thing is that all Hopper wanted for you to be safe and Hawkins isn’t a safe place anymore. It's a……” Joyce motioned struggling to find the right word. 

“Blackhole,” El stated blankly. Joyce gave her a confused look but gave the young girl a nod in agreement. “I know things won’t be the same, but there is one thing I want to try to get back that we might be able to do here.”

“What’s that?” Joyce asked with genuine curiosity. 

“My powers,” El replied. “Will and I have been trying to work on getting them back. Sometimes I’m able to move stuff, but it's super small and…” 

“You used to be able to flip cars and fight thirty-foot monsters.” 

El let out a bemused giggle. “Exactly.” 

While Eleven’s powers didn’t exactly fit into Joyce’s master plan for normalcy, she did see that it was something that was important to El and maybe the one thing that Joyce could actually help fix. 

“Ok, how about tomorrow you and I come up with a plan to help build up your powers again?” Joyce offered. El’s face lifted with elation. 

“Promise?” 

“Promise! Now I have no idea what I’m doing, but maybe we just have to take baby steps to build your powers back up again,” Joyce cautioned. 

“Baby steps,” El repeated. 

“Think of it as lifting weights for the first time or training for a race,” Joyce elaborated but was met with a confused face. “I’ll explain those two things later.” 

**Hawkins, Indiana**

As Nancy parked the station wagon in the family driveway, Mike glanced at the unfamiliar crappy car parked near the house. She and Mike had driven home from the hilltop in sad, comfortable silence. The separation from their significant others had actually bonded in the siblings in a way, the two of them hung out more talked about missing the Byers family and mostly ganged up on their poor parents out of boredom. 

As soon as they walked through the front door they were greeted by their mather calling to them from the living room. 

“Hey, there you two! Where have you guys been?” 

“Just hanging out, Mom,” Nancy offered weakly to tired and cold to come up with a proper answer. 

“Ok, I have your dinners waiting in the oven. We tried to wait for you both, but Holly was getting cranky,” Karen replied. “But before you do that..” 

Karen pulled her two children further away from the living room and lowered her voice. 

“Nancy, honey, there is a gentleman here to see you from the Chicago-Sun Times says he’s here to discuss a co-op at the paper and potential scholarship opportunities at schools in Chicago.” 

Nancy shook her head in confusion, “ _What?”_

“I know, I know, right?” Karen replied excitedly “His name is Murray Baumann and-”

“WHAT!?” Nancy and Mike shouted in unison. Karen reeled back. 

“You two have heard of him?” 

Nancy quickly gained footing for an excuse, “Uh yeah. Mom, he’s the journalist who investigated Barbara’s death, remember?” 

“Oh gosh, no honey, I didn’t,” Karen said sympathetically. “Do you want me to ask him to leave or-

“No, no,” Nancy answered hurriedly. “I’m interested to hear what he has to say, it’s just um..unexpected.” 

Karen nodded, “Alright well he’s in the living room lets go talk.” 

Mike and Nancy followed their mom into the living room where they found the ex-journalists animatedly talking politics with Ted Wheeler. Nancy could tell Murray was spewing bullshit to keep her Dad entertained and happy. 

“I’ll tell ya, Ronald Regan is the best thing that’s happened to this country since JFK,” Murray rambled. 

“I’ll say,” Ted said raising his cup of scotch in agreement. 

“Just great policies all around, economic, social - NANCY,” Murray yelled upon noticing her arrival. “How lovely to see you again.” 

“Hi, Mu-Mr. Baumann,” Nancy started, “Nice to see you again too.” 

“Michael, looking strapping as always,” Murray greeted. 

Mike gave Murray a dirty, confused and annoyed look in reply. 

“Michael,” Karen admonished, “Are you going to say hi to Mr. Baumann?”

“Uhh hi,” Mike offered lamely. 

“Murray, can we get you anything to drink?” Karen asked politely. 

“Vodka rocks would be great if you have it.” 

“Absolutely! Ted, can you help me in the kitchen?” 

“Sure thing, sweetheart,” Ted said as he begrudgingly moved out of the Lazy Boy and into the kitchen. 

As soon as the Wheeler parents were out of earshot Murray took the shit eating grin off his face and leaned towards the siblings. 

  
_“Where the HELL is Joyce Byers?!”_ he whispered sharply.


	3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

**Maine**

An empty Kleenex box and bloody tissues lined the floor around El’s feet. Across the room random objects of multiple sizes laid in a straight line on the ground. The objective of the first physical therapy session to regain El’s powers was to get at least one of the objects to move in some shape or form. They had been going at it for an hour with absolutely no luck. The longer their efforts went on the more determined and frustrated El became and the more Joyce worried about the vein popping out of the young girl's forehead. The incessant nose bleeding wasn’t a good sign either.

Joyce let out a sigh of defeat, “Sweetie, I think its time we take a break. You’re going to overexert yourself. Baby steps, remember?”

“I want to keep going,” El grunted out in reply, still staring at the line of obstacles.

“I’m not saying we have to stop completely,” Joyce offered. “I’m just saying we should take a break for a little bit. Get some food in your system, rest up and recharge?”

El’s face softened and she nodded in concession.

“Ok - I’ll make you some lunch. Boys,” Joyce called up the stairs. “You guys want lunch?”

“I’m fine - thanks, Mom!” Jonathan’s muffled reply came from his bedroom. Will’s door popped open and he galloped down the steps.

“I could eat.”

“Great! How do ham and cheese sandwiches sound to you guys?” Joyce asked. The teens gave shrugs of indifference and Joyce rolled her eyes. “Please, contain your excitement.”

As Joyce went into the kitchen, Will plopped himself and El picked up the dirty tissues on the ground.

“Any luck yet?” He asked out of curiosity and concern. El shook her head as she tossed the tissues into the trash. “Give it time, they’ll come back.”

“You sound like Mike,” El accused as WIll chuckled. “We don’t know if they’ll come back.”

“Don’t think that way...besides I don’t think you’d keep getting your nose bleeds if something wasn’t going on it your mind.”

El huffed, “Fine, but why can’t I move anything anymore? I’ve tried visiting in the bath and that hasn’t worked either.”

Will contemplated this issue for a moment. “Maybe you’re trying too hard.”

“Too hard?” El asked incredulously.

“Yeah,” Will leaned forward before launching into his theory. “Obviously you want your power to come back, but you’re psyching yourself out on what will happen if you can just use them part way and not the full way. You’re so caught up in your fear of failing that it might be blocking your potential.”

El absorbed this for a moment and thought Will be on to something.

“Ok, let’s say you’re right,” she started, “how do I stop myself from getting to...psyched..out?”

“When I first got back from the Upside Down I used to have panic attacks, Really bad ones because of my PTSD,” Will explained. “One of the doctors in the labs taught me some techniques to help calm myself down if my mom or Jonathan couldn’t be there to help.”

El listened to her friend intently. Sometimes it was easy for her to forget that Will had gone through the ringer as well because she had been separated from him both times. She was also reluctant to believe that the scientists of Hawkins Lab would have any helpful tips for her.

“What did they tell you to do?”

“First, they said I should try to slow my breathing by counting and then once my breathing was under control that I should try clearing my mind,” Will told her.

“How do I clear my head?”

“My doctor said it’s different for everyone. For some people it's focusing on their breath and counting, for others it could be remembering a happy memory that roots them in reality.”

“What worked for you?”

“Music,” Will replied sheepishly. “Or thinking of the feeling I get when I draw.”

El smiled at him, “Those things go against what everyone else has told me about having to use my powers.”

“Like who?” Will asked.

“Papa and...other people from the lab,” El offered lamely. She had told Mike and Hop some vague details on going to find Kali in Chicago but she was afraid to tell them everything. “They told me I should use my anger and hatred to get the full effect of my powers.”

Will waited a moment before replying, “And how has that been working out for you?”

He and El burst into a fit of giggles as El nudged him gently with her foot.

“Wanna give it another try?” Will asked with excitement. El nodded and moved to the spot she stood at earlier. “Alright close your eyes and focus on your breathing.”

El followed his instructions.

After a few moments, Will spoke up again. “Now clear your mind.”

El’s mind went blank trying to find something to root herself back in reality. Suddenly memories came flashing back to her reuniting with Mike after a year, giggling on her bedroom floor with Max after spying on the boys, Christmas morning with the Byers, shaking hands with Lucas after flipping the van. The very last one was her and Hop sitting in the cabin stuffing their faces with Eggos extravaganzas.

El opened her eyes slowly and took a deep breath. Her eyes fell on to one of Will’s small action figures that sat in the middle of the line up. El slowly raised he right hand and focused.

She didn’t know how long she stood there but she could feel the small, familiar trickle of blood streaming from her nose and suddenly the action figured wiggled almost as in slow motion. Shortly after it raised it mid-air before shifting its trajection right into El’s waiting hand. She stared down at the toy momentarily before shifting her focus to Will, who was also staring at the toy in her hand with awe.

Their eyes met and they immediately burst into cheers of victory.

“YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT!” Will jumped off the couch and shook El by her shoulders. El laughed while jumping up and down unable to physically contain her happiness. Joyce burst back into the room as Jonathan ran down the steps to see what all the excitement was about.

“What is going on?” Joyce asked as El and WIll tried to calm themselves down.

Will took the action figure out of El’s hands to show it to his mom and brother.

“El just lifted this with her mind,” Will explained. Jonathan looked less than impressed as he had seen the full force of El’s ability but gave her an encouraging smile anyway. Joyce immediately cried out in joy and enveloped El in a tight hug.

“That’s great, sweetheart!” El smiled and pulled off the hug. Joyce could see the joy draining from the young girls face. “What is it?”

“I’m happy that this worked, it just that…” El trailed off.

“You used to be able to flip cars and fight 30-foot interdimensional monsters?” Jonathan supplied. Joyce shushed her older son, but El giggled and nodded her head. “Ignore him and remember -”

“Baby steps,” El interrupted in agreement. Joyce smiled and kissed the young girl’s forehead.

**Bloomington, Indiana**

Murray Baumann didn’t know how he wound up with a group of seven children in his hideaway yet here he was.

All he needed from Nancy Wheeler was an address, phone number or radio frequency. He should have known better that the tenacious teenager would just hand over that information and let him be on his merry way. He didn’t expect her to hold that information hostage until Murray told her and Mike exactly what was going on.

Murray had barely gotten through the full story about the code he received before Mike was on his super comm shouting, “Code Red!”

It took about two minutes for the Sinclair kid to come barreling through the Wheelers basement door and about 15-more minutes for Henderson, Harington, Mayfield and Harrington’s girlfriend to come sneaking in as well. Murray was quite impressed that they immediately launched into theories about the factors that could be at play before Nancy shushed them all and explained that they couldn’t all hide in the Wheeler basement anymore. That’s when all the kids turned their eyes on Murray. It has taken him a few minutes to realize what their stares had meant before he was vigorously shaking his head in refusal.

“No, NO!” He started, “ABSOLUTELY NOT.”

His roaring had done him no good as the kids had already split into two groups surrounding the Harrington kid’s car and Murray’s car.

Now his very small home was packed with teens and junk food.

“You’re absolutely sure this code you heard said Hop?” Dustin had asked for what Murray could only assume was the hundredth time.

Murray let out a sigh of frustration, “Yes, you think that if I wasn’t sure I would rope in you prepubescent nitwits?”

Dustin looked mildly annoyed as Steve quickly flipped off the ex-journalist on his younger friend’s behalf.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Nancy started, “Mrs. Beyers said that when she turned the key the machine blew up and killed the Russian guards in the room along with Hopper.”

“I KNOW, Nancy. I was down there with her remember? But can you tell me the odds of a random passerby going on the last radio frequency Jim Hopper ever used and using Morse code to transmit that name? You’ve all ensured me that it wasn’t any of you playing a sick prank. I also doubt it could have been the Byers kids or the psychic girl pulling a fast one on us either.”

Nancy huffed in half agreement, half despair.

“Ok, so assuming that this was Hopper who sent the message is there any way to tell where the message was sent from?” Max asked.

“If he had sent the message on a loop, there is a small chance we may have been able to track the coordinates but that is a far chance. Cerebro is a solid ham radio, but it's not that advanced,” Dustin explained.

“Well wherever he is, it has to be against his will. Hopper wouldn’t leave El to fend for herself willingly and why send a code instead of verbally confirm its him?” Mike stated as he thought himself to a minute before muttering, “The gate…”

“What?” asked Lucas.

“The gate,” Mike reaffirmed. “What if when the gate exploded it forced Hopper back through the gate before it exploded?”

“If he was forced through the gate wouldn’t he be stuck in the Upside Down?” Steve piped up.

“Not necessarily,” Mike replied. “When El beat the Demogorgon she went through a pocket that led her through the upside down and was able to get out through the school again and Nancy -”

“I went through a pocket in the woods when Jonathan and I were looking for Will,” Nancy realized catching on to Mike’s theory.”

“Ok, so what does that mean?” This time it was Robin asking the question.

“I’m not entirely sure, but what it might mean is that the explosion sent Hopper into a gate and he might have exited through a nearby pocket before the gate closed again.” Mike hypothesized.

“If the Russians discovered the gate they may have realized that it could open more pockets into the Upside Down,” Dustin added on. Mike gave him a nod of agreement.

“Exactly, and if Hop went through one of the pockets where the Russian were stationed-”

“They would have taken him hostage.” Murray finished.

Everyone sat in silence to absorb this information.

“Even if all of this is true those are a lot of big ifs and its all based on theories,” Max said breaking the silence. “Also how did the Russians even find out about the gate and the pockets if El and the scientists at Hawkins Lab discovered it by accident?”

Everyone turned and stared at Max.

“ _What_?” Murray asked sharply. Max looked flustered and her eyes fluttered to each person.

“W-when Dustin and Lucas told me everything that had happened in Hawkins before I moved here, they said that when El was held in the lab the scientists were using her powers to spy on Russians and that when she was in the void-”

“She heard the Demogorgon for the first time and when Brenner made her go back in she got scared and opened the gate,” Mike remembered.

“Yeah,” Max replied.

“Ok, ok,” Murray started. “So if everything with the monsters and alternate dimensions was a total accident-

“That means someone had to have told the Russians what had happened in Hawkins,” Nancy said cutting him off.

“Someone from the lab?” Lucas asked as Nancy gave an unsure nod.

“A spy,” Mike said definitively.


	4. The Conspiracy

**Windham, Maine**

Joyce narrowly dodged a frying pan flying past her head and into the hands of the fourteen-year-old girl standing on the other side of the kitchen. El stood with the frying pan looking sheepish and apologetic at her guardian. Joyce fixed her with a stern look. 

“Sweetheart, I’m happy that your powers are slowly coming back but how about we keep the practice designated to the backyard,” Joyce suggested. 

Just as Joyce made the suggestion, Jonathan walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge to fix himself a quick breakfast. 

“Do we really think El practicing her psychic abilities in the backyard is the best idea? Mrs. Collins next door is already nosy enough about our not-so-nuclear family moving into her nice neighborhood,” he noted while taking the frying pan out of El’s hands. “Can’t imagine what she would make of El tossing Will’s Huffy across the yard.” 

Joyce let out a huff of resignation and nodded in agreement with her son’s argument. Elaine Collins had shown up at their front door within an hour of the family arriving in Windham asking all types of questions about where the Byers were from and if there was a _mister_ Byers in the picture. Her eyes especially lit up when she overheard El call Joyce by her first name instead of ‘mom’, sensing that there was a juicy story to uncover there. The story Joyce shared was only a half version of the truth, El was the daughter of one of her oldest friends and when the friend passed away unexpectedly there was no next of kin to take in, so Joyce became her guardian. 

Elaine Collins was sympathetic to the family - at first. But she soon made it known around the neighborhood that she thought the music Jonathan played was inappropriate. Then there was the matter of her son, who was the same age as Will and Eleven, who seem particularly keen on bullying Will whenever he got the chance. Joyce had her assumptions on how Timmy Collins justified his behavior to his mother and refused to feed into their beliefs, which would probably cause more grief for her younger son. Then there was the matter that Elaine Collins chomped on the information that El was a _simple_ girl.

When Joyce moved the family to Windham, Sam Owens had advised her to enroll El in the local high school along with Will despite her lack of a traditional education. According to Owens, it was conspicuous enough for the new family in town to have an adoptive daughter and no father in sight, they didn’t need to draw even more attention to the fact that said daughter didn’t attend school. So this led to Joyce explaining to the school that El had a learning disability and would need extra tutoring. This came with unintended consequences, such as Timmy Collins directing some teasing El’s way as well and false sympathy from Elaine as she sent her eldest daughter, Emma, over to help El with any subjects that weren’t Jonathan’s expertise. The teasing didn’t seem to bother El as she didn’t seem interested in making new friends in Windham. She was perfectly fine with her old friends in Hawkins. 

“Right, we don’t need to give that woman any more reason to gossip,” Joyce said in a huff. “El you can practice in the living room, but we will find designated times for you to work on building up your powers again.” 

“Sounds goods,” El replied with a bit a reluctance. Joyce sent her a small, reassuring smile. She knew none of this was what the young girl wanted, but she appreciated that El took everything in stride. 

“In the meantime, Jonathan is going to help you with your English and History homework. Emma will be over later to tutor you in Math and Science.” 

At the news of homework, El rolled her eyes and groaned. “But we have a week before we go back to school.” 

“Exactly and you’re not going to spend this time putting your homework off to the last minute. I promised your teachers we would take the break to really hone down on your skills and don’t you want to impress all your teachers and classmates with everything you learned over the Christmas holiday?” 

El and Jonathan both gave Joyce a look of bemusement. “Oh shut up and eat your breakfast.” 

Joyce moved to the fresh pot of coffee Jonathan had made to pour herself a cup, “Where is Will?” 

“Still sleeping,” Jonathan replied. “And before you start harping on him - he finished all of his Christmas break homework yesterday.” 

There was a knock at the front door and the trio glanced up. “I’ll get it,” Joyce noted as she made her way out of the kitchen, “but you two should both follow Will’s example and get your work done ahead of time.” 

As she moved to the front door she wondered who could be at her front door at this time of day during the holiday break and as she swung the door open her heart dropped into her stomach. 

“Murray?” She asked in a disbelieving voice. 

“Hi Joyce,” Murray said in a hesitant voice as two figured popped out from behind him. Joyce was now truly at a loss for words and closed the front door behind her and shoving herself on the front stoop with her three unexpected visitors. “ _Mike_ ? _Nancy_ ? What are you three doing here? _Murray_ , does Karen know that you have brought her children to MAINE?” 

“Joyce, I’m gonna need to calm down. We would have called but we weren’t sure if it was safe or who was watching?” 

Joyce shook her head. “What does that mean? Who would be watching? Owens said they would back off and only check-in with enough notice. What is going on, Murray?” 

“I know this is unexpected, but it would be better if we talked about this _inside._ For Christ’s sake its freezing out here.” 

“NO. Not until you tell me what this is all about.” 

Murray huffed and ran his hands over his face mumbling a sharp rebuke that sounded suspiciously like, “ _Woman_.” 

“Joyce,” a falsely sweet and distant voice called. Joyce turned her head to see Elaine Collins standing in her driveway with this morning’s newspaper in her hands and looking very intrigued with the scene playing out on the Byer’s front stoop. “Everything ok?” 

Joyce forced a smile, “Yes, Elaine. My brother just made a very unexpected visit with my niece and nephew here. Just absorbing the shock, but we’re gonna head inside to get out of the shock.” 

Elaine smile, not entirely buying the story her neighbor was selling but nonetheless called out. “How nice. Talk to you later, Joyce!” 

Joyce sent the nosy neighbor a parting wave and ushered the party inside. She sighed as she led them into the living room. 

“Kids,” she called. “We have some visitors!” 

Jonathan and El meandered into the living room with curiosity and froze on sight when the saw the familiar faces standing in their new home. 

“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Jonathan asked with a slight laugh of surprise as El launched herself into Mike’s arms for a tight hug. After a moment she pulled Nancy into a tight embrace as well, which the older girl returned. “WILL WAKE UP YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHO’S HERE.” 

Joyce heard a soft thud from upstairs as Will dragged himself out of bed. The younger Byers brother walked slowly down the stairs, “This better be good if you’re wakin-” 

He stopped short absorbing the scene unfolding in his living room. “M-mike? Nancy? What are you guys doing here?” 

Will ran down the remaining stairs to hug his best friend. Joyce felt a pang of guilt watching the small reunion unfold in front of her. She hadn’t seen her boys or El light up like this since they had left Hawkins. She knew she took away from their home and friends, but it was so that they could have a shot at normalcy after the horrors they had seen in the last two years. But Joyce was certain that dream of normalcy was about to be shattered. 

“My question exactly,” his older brother replied. Nancy hesitated before addressing the Byers family. 

“Well its a really long story and like Murray said - we weren’t sure if it was safe to use the phones to warn you that we were coming. But we had to tell you what we had found - which could be nothing - but it seems unlikely that its nothing.” 

The Byers family looked more confused than ever. Murray huffed “You’re all going to have to sit down for this. Joyce, do you have anything to drink.” 

“Uh y-yeah I bring out some coffee.” 

“Anything stronger?” the conspiracy theory asked. Joyce glared at him in response and he backed down immediately. 

After Joyce returned with coffees for Murray and Nancy, the visitors had launched into the theory. Murray began with how he picked up the morse code message on the ham radio frequency, how despite all logic it was possible that Hopper survived the explosion and that if the Russians had him it was possible that there was a mole from Hawkins lab that fed the Russians information about the Upside Down. 

“So that’s why we are here,” Nancy finished. Jonathan and Will shot their mother uneasy glances. Joyce closed her eyes trying to absorb the information the trio laid out in front of her. There were a lot of big ifs and circumstantial evidence that made her want to believe that Hopper somehow survived the explosion, but she knew better. She saw with her own eyes how the explosion eviscerated the Russian soldiers, there was no possible way that he could have survived. She looked around the room - Jonathan looked reluctant, Will seemed convinced and the most heartbreaking of all was El, who looked hopeful. 

“I want to believe you guys, I really do but I was down in that lab when the blast went off and I just don’t see how it is possible how Jim could have survived it,” Joyce started. 

“But it could be possible that the blast forced him through the gate before you were able to close it,” Mike argued, “And we from when Will went missing the first time when the gate is open there are different pockets that can open to the Upside Down. That’s how the Demagorgen was able to take Will and Barb.” 

“Nancy also went through one of these pockets when we were searching for them,” Jonathan said with realization, seeming to come around to the trio’s argument. 

“Exactly,” Nancy replied. “Mrs. Byers we know that this is a long shot, but we wouldn’t have come here if we didn’t think it was true. Only Hopper could have known that we would have been on that frequency for the ham radio.” 

“Well what if it was this so-called mole from Hawkins lab that used the frequency to lead you three to come all the way here to find El,” Joyce argued. “It could be a trick. Owens is agreed to let her have a normal life, but what if this traitor and the Russians want her for more experiments or worse reopen that damn.” 

Nancy and Murray suddenly looked anxious, they had not considered that this might have been a ruse all along. Mike, however, remained stubborn on his stance that Hopper was alive, “None of us told Owens about which frequency we used to communicate during the fight at Starcourt and since Owen didn’t know it means that the mole might be some who was with Hawkins Lab when El first opened the gate.” 

Joyce shook her head afraid of getting her hopes up. 

“Mom,” Will cut in gently. “Nobody believed you when they thought I was dead. But you stayed hopeful, you knew I was alive despite all logic and evidence that I was gone. We need to give that same hope to Hopper right now and after all the crazy things we have seen over the past three years I think Hopper surviving an explosion falls into the normal side of the crazy spectrum.” 

Joyce gave her son a watery smile and looked to El. “What do you think, sweetie?” 

A million emotions passed through the teenage girls eyes very quickly and after a moment she looked determined. “If Hop is alive - there is only one way we’re going to find him.” 

The entire group stared at El in anticipation, “ _The bath._ ” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I went MIA on this for a while, but I guess there is no time like quarantine to keep working on this. I hope to be a little bit more reliable on the updates on this story, but from the short Season 4 teaser trailer it looks like my hunch on how this will all play out is heading in the right direction.


End file.
